As is well known to every schoolchild, there are many designs of stands or racks for supporting a bicycle upright. Among the various bike stands are those designed to receive a wheel of the bicycle and maintain the wheel in an upright, stationary position, thereby supporting the bicycle upright as well. Typically, these prior art stands are mounted to ground footings for stability, and are fairly large, heavy assemblies with their structural elements permanently connected so that they cannot readily be compacted for storage and transport. Furthermore, the traditional bicycle rack comes in a fixed length, without the capability for increasing its capacity for more bicycles.
The conventional bicycle stand presents many problems for those who desire a stand that is portable. A frequent application in which portable bicycle stands are desired is at sporting events, such as bicycle races, or other special events where spectators or participants arrive on bicycles. The need for portable bicycle racks is particularly important at triathlons because the event requires a bicycle staging area where contestants leave their bicycle during the swimming and running legs. For these purposes it is important that the bicycle racks be lightweight, easy to set up and take down, and conveniently storable. It is also advantageous to have a bicycle rack whose length can be customized to fit optimally within any particular staging area for one event. Currently, there is no known design of rack on the market suitable for setting up a staging area to receive and properly store a large number of bicycles in a cost effective and convenient manner. In addition, because of the expense, bulkiness and weight of traditional bicycle stands, bike stands of the type that maintain the bicycle upright have typically not found wide usage in household applications.